Watford: Former police station and former public house

Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 16 Feb 2008

This building, on the corner of King Street to the left, and Smith Street to the right, dates from 1888 and was Watford's police station until 1962. In that year the new police station was opened in Shady Lane and this building was converted into a public house, called, unsurprisingly, the Sir Robert Peel, and remained as such until very recently. A comparison with a wood etching of the building made when it was newly constructed reveals that a few things have changed. The ground floor level facings over the original brickwork came with the conversion, as did the loss of the ground floor level corner, and a couple of chimneys have been demolished, including the obvious one above the chimney breast with the terracotta date tablet, which was quite high. The whole block, including Image is earmarked for residential and commercial development as the Met Quarter, and as part of the plans the building was to be demolished. However in June 2007 Watford Borough Council for once sought to preserve what little remains of the town's historic buildings, and refused to uphold the demolition on the grounds that it would have a detrimental impact on the streetscape and on the character and appearance of the conservation area.

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